The Taking Care of Tony Stark
by syriala
Summary: Bucky didn't remember what it was like to take care of someone. So when he had some very protective feelings for Tony it was an understatement to say he was confused about them.


When Tony entered the kitchen, Bucky had the sudden urge to tackle him to the ground a split second before he collided with the table.

Tony swore and jumped around on one foot, while simultaneously holding his side and arm, and Bucky avoided his eyes.

"Hey, metal man, how's the arm doing?" Tony asked when he finally sat down on a chair, still rubbing his hip, and Bucky awkwardly shrugged.

"It's fine," he mumbled.

Tony eyed him with a look that obviously meant to pry more words out of him, but Bucky didn't elaborate. No need to tell Tony that it was twitchy and sluggish in some movements.

When Tony's pain ebbed, he apparently realized that he didn't get the thing he came into the kitchen for in the first place, a cup of coffee, but before Tony could get up, Bucky walked over to the coffee machine and got Tony a cup just like he preferred.

Tony raise an eyebrow at him when Bucky put the cup down in front of him, but when he took a sip his eyes fluttered shut in bliss.

"It's perfect, just like I love it," Tony muttered and Bucky cursed himself.

There was no need to show just how much of a creeper he was, how Tony took his coffee wasn't the only thing he knew, but it was too late for that now.

Tony took another sip, unaware of Bucky's thoughts, and then he got up. He clasped Bucky's shoulder, muttered a heartfelt "Thank you," and then left again.

Bucky thought this would be the only encounter that went like this, but he was wrong.

When the Avenger's were called out to a fight not a week later, Steve told Bucky regretfully that he wasn't yet cleared for active duty and that he would have to stay behind. Bucky nodded and agreed, and even though Natasha and Sam gave him doubtful glances, no one said another word.

After Bucky got his gear to follow them, Jarvis helpfully pointed out the best roof for him and Bucky acknowledged his advice with a nod before he left the tower.

When Bucky had set out to help the team, he had thought that his first instinct would be to take out anyone approaching Steve or Sam, as he was closest with them, but not even after three minutes he found himself focused on Tony.

He was flying a bit funny and his left foot repulsor wasn't working like it should, but no one told him to come down or stop the fight and Bucky wanted to pick him out of the sky and sit him down to check him over.

Instead he took out any enemy that came even close to Tony from his left side or when Tony didn't seem to notice them, and it didn't took long before Tony flew an extra round over his roof.

A second later his cell rang. Bucky sighed, but he answered it, pressing it between his ear and shoulder so that he could still use his rifle.

"Mrph," he answered and Tony chuckled in his ear.

"I see what you are doing," Tony said and Bucky rolled his eyes.

"No you don't," he replied and Tony laughed.

"No, I guess I don't," he agreed the exact same second Bucky shot an enemy right in front of Tony.

"Don't tell Steve," Bucky said after he listened to Tony relay some new information to the team.

"You think he won't notice?"

"He can be dense," Bucky retorted.

"You don't say," Tony muttered and then did a heart stopping swoop to avoid a collision.

"Don't distract me if you don't have anything interesting to say," Bucky grumbled after another short silence. It wasn't like he couldn't shoot while he was on the phone, but he didn't know what Tony wanted from him right now.

"Alright, I didn't want to disturb you in your assassin way's," Tony gave back.

Bucky was already about to end the call when he heard Tony say "Thank you." Bucky grunted into the speaker, unsure how to respond to that, before he finally hit the end button.

Steve really hadn't noticed, or pretended he hadn't noticed, but the rest of the team had no qualms thanking Bucky for his aid.

In the weeks after that fight, Bucky finally allowed Tony to work on the arm. Steve had made it clear that getting the arm at least checked out was a major point for being allowed on the field and since Bucky really wanted to be out there with the others, he eventually gave in.

Tony was obviously excited, but even though his behaviour was brash as hell, he was oddly careful when it came to any work on the arm.

He did a scan before he even touched the arm, and he explained Bucky exactly what it was they saw on the scan.

Hydra had built in a few fail saves, that would need to be disabled at one point, and there were also a few parts that obviously needed tending to.

Bucky was weary the first time Tony actually started to work on the arm, but his touch was light and careful, the chatter was constant and soon enough Bucky began to relax under Tony's thoughtful hands.

Tony didn't seem to mind that Bucky wasn't one for talking, he kept up a conversation all on his own, and Bucky was grateful for it.

He barely knew what to say to Steve, and he and Sam only klicked because they mostly traded insults, and there was no way he could say anything even remotely interesting to Tony.

But Tony kept the chatter up, session after session, and he never seemed to mind at all, at least he never brought it up. Eventually Bucky began to respond to his questions and after another month or so he even asked some of his own.

Tony was always patient with him, stopped when Bucky tensed under his hands, and to his own surprise Bucky felt safe with him.

Bucky was still plagued by nightmares more often than not, and so he spent most of his nights on the couch, trying not to fall asleep, in fear of having yet another horrible nightmare.

It was during one of those nights that Tony stumbled in, bleary and obviously half asleep on his feet, and Bucky's first instinct was to yell at him to take more care of himself, followed by the impulse to huddle him up in a blanket and sit him down on the couch.

Bucky clenched his fists at those thoughts and that was the one thing Tony noticed.

"Bad night?" he asked, without judgment and Bucky gave a vague nod.

Tony hummed in response and then flopped down on the couch next to Bucky, apparently entirely unconcerned that Bucky could be on edge right now.

Bucky could, in fact, not stand Tony's presence right now and so he got up and walked into the kitchen. When he came back into the living-room he pressed a cup of tea in Tony's hands and threw a blanket over his head before he started to leave.

It took Tony a few seconds to get his bearings back but then he called a heartfelt "Thank you" after Bucky.

It was that last event that really worried Bucky.

It was bad enough that he still had nightmares over nightmares, that he still sometimes forgot where he was, even after all this time, but now on top of that it seemed like he wanted to control Tony, to tell him what to do and to dictate his life.

It felt a bit like he wanted to do to Tony what Hydra did to him and it was that thought that finally made Bucky talk to Sam.

He had thought about going to Steve with this, but he could just imagine the disappointed look on Steve's face, the sadness in his eyes, and so he decided that Sam was the better option.

He at least would tell him outright if he was about to mess this all up.

He knocked at Sam's door when he couldn't find him anywhere in the tower and when Sam opened, his brows hunched immediately.

"Summer breeze," he greeted him and Bucky couldn't bring himself to insult him back so he just said "Sam".

"No stupid nickname. This must be serious. Come in."

Bucky was a bit surprised at the easiness with which Sam invited him into his private quarters but he quickly followed Sam into the living room before he could change his mind.

"What's up?" Sam asked and got a beer for himself and Bucky before he settled down on the couch.

Bucky reflexively took the beer but he didn't sit down.

"I want to control Tony," he started without preamble and Sam's eyebrows shot up.

"Excuse me?" he asked, worry colouring his voice and Bucky shrugged uncomfortably.

"I want to control him. Tell him what to do."

"Okay, I need more context here. Use your words, man."

And so Bucky retold all the times where he had the urge to get Tony to do something. When he was done there was a small smile playing around Sam's mouth.

"This is not funny," Bucky said irritably. "This is serious. But I guess I shouldn't have come to you, of course this would be too complex for your bird brain."

"Ah, now there are the insults. I was already starting to miss them," Sam teased and then he leaned forward, braced his elbows on his knees.

"You don't want to control Tony," he told Bucky, who scoffed.

"Did you not listen?"

"You want to _protect_ him," Sam said and that brought Bucky up short.

"I want to what?"

"You want to protect him. That first time, where you wanted to tackle him to the ground? You saw that he was about to march into the table and you wanted to prevent that. When you took out the enemies for him, you wanted to make sure he wouldn't get hurt."

"I babied him! Like he wasn't capable of keeping himself safe. I basically took away his purpose!"

"Really? Did you force him to come down? Did you take out all the enemies that came for him? No. You just helped where you could and as far as you told me, he realized that as well. You tried to protect him, keep him safe."

Bucky finally sat down on the couch, scowl firmly in place and arms crossed over his chest.

"And when you brought him the tea, you just wanted him to sleep, to get some rest. You don't want to control him. You want to take care of him."

"How is that different from what Hydra did to me?" Bucky asked lowly and Sam cursed.

"Jesus, Bucky, this is nothing like what Hydra did to you. They took away your choice, they hurt you and violated you. This is completely different. The whole motivation is different. They controlled you, hurt you, so you would do something _for them,_ but you want to make sure that Tony _doesn't_ get hurt. You want to protect him so that he feels safe and good."

Bucky fidgeted a few seconds before he asked "Really?"

"Yes," Sam said with emphasis. "You took care of Steve before, don't you remember that? I guess it was the same with him."

Bucky shook his head, he didn't remember that, but he had heard stories about that of course. Maybe it really was the same.

"So it's nothing bad? I'm not going to hurt him?" Bucky asked with a small voice and Sam smiled at him.

"It's nothing bad, I promise. You're definitely not going to hurt him with that."

"Okay."

"Okay. And now get out of here and pester him with a plate of food or something. There are still leftovers in the fridge."

Bucky huffed. "I didn't know you knew about real people food, bird boy. I always thought you only knew about seeds and bird food."

Sam threw a pillow at his face for that and Bucky allowed it, if only to give himself a second to take a deep breath.

"You are a menace, Barnes," Sam told him, but there was fondness in his voice, just like there was in Bucky's when he replied "You're one to speak."

In the end they drank their beer in comfortable silence on the couch and when Bucky finally left to go to Tony Sam briefly squeezed his shoulder without a word. Bucky nodded and then he was out the door.

Bucky got the leftover out of the fridge before he went to seek out Tony and he also got another cup of tea for him, just for good measure. He was pretty sure Tony drank enough coffee as it was.

He found Tony in the workshop of course, and he also wasn't surprised to see that it obviously had been some time since Tony had left.

Tony only briefly looked up at him before he went back to his project but he acknowledged Bucky with a mumbled "And what can I do for you today?"

"Eat," Bucky told him and practically shoved the plate in Tony's face.

"Demanding much?" Tony asked, but he motioned for Bucky to set the plate down on his workbench. "You also brought me coffee?" he asked and there was unmistakable hope in his voice.

"Tea," Bucky said and smiled at the way Tony's face fell. "You need to sleep."

"You talked to Steve, I see?" Tony asked but he started to eat almost immediately.

"No," Bucky answered and Tony raised a curious eyebrow at him.

"What brings this on then?"

"You need to sleep," Bucky repeated and Tony scowled.

"You're repeating yourself."

"And yet I don't see you sleeping," Bucky shot back and Tony gave a surprised laugh at that.

"So far your attempts at taking care of me have been a lot more subtle. Why the sudden aggressive way?"

Bucky was surprised and a bit ashamed that Tony had noticed, but he shrugged it off after a second. If Tony had noticed and hadn't protested maybe Sam was right and this wasn't bad at all.

"Subtlety got me nowhere. Now eat your food, drink your tea and then go get some sleep."

"Pushy. I like," Tony leered and finally really dug into his food, washing it all down with the tea.

Bucky had kept watch, making sure that Tony really ate and drank everything and when Tony was done he turned around to leave.

"And how are you going to make sure that I sleep?" Tony asked before Bucky could take more than two steps.

"I…don't know?" Bucky asked, because he really hadn't thought that far. He had figured that Tony would feel sleepy once he ate and would go to bed by himself, without further prodding.

"I'm thinking you're gonna have to stay," Tony said decidedly and promptly dragged Bucky over to the couch.

He pushed Bucky down and then flopped down on the couch himself, stretched out and with his head in Bucky's lap.

"You're gonna make an awesome pillow," he mumbled and then wriggled around a bit to get more comfortable.

Bucky didn't know what to do, especially with his hands, but eventually he carefully settled one on Tony's chest and the other at the top of his head.

Tony hummed at that and pressed into the touch, so Bucky started to lightly scratch him and card his fingers through his hair.

Tony gave a pleased little noise at that and so Bucky kept it up.

"Thank you," Tony mumbled into Bucky's stomach when he turned around and Bucky smiled down at him.

It didn't took Tony long to rest more heavily against him, and when the first little snore reached Bucky's ears he allowed himself a small chuckle.

Maybe taking care of someone else wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
